Peer Reviews

Linda’s Lesson Plan 1 Comment
Great lesson! I like incorporating the phone apps rather than only using the reference guide in book format- bad memories of a long tedious undergraduate project for my pharmacology and general medicine classes!!! This lesson lends itself better to the current generation of students and, I think, will be well received by your students.
By the way, when you click on the link to the powerpoint in your citations, it takes you to the generic homepage. I don’t know if that was your intent or if you meant for it to load the actual powerpoint that accompanies the lesson or if it’s actually there and I’m just not seeing it.
And maybe you plan to cover this in another lesson, but is there time to give the students a case scenario at the end to role play? One where you have a student volunteer to be a patient and another to be the nurse, and a scenario is presented where they have to utilize what they just learned in a practical, mock, hands-on setting. From a learner’s perspective, I think being forced to put the skills of using the drug reference guide to work in a real life, or at least mock situation, immediately after learning it may help solidify the process in my brain by linking together the actual task of looking up the drugs in the reference guide and applying that task to a scenario that requires it.

Roddran’s Tech Toolbox 2 Comment
I think your toolbox is all ready to go! I don’t see the need for you to change anything. The only suggestion I have is to include a screencast showing you how to use jing to create a screencast for users new to the product.

Roddran’s Lesson Plan 3 Comment
LP 3 review

Karen’s Tech Toolbox 3 Comment
I believe I am speechless! You did such a wonderful job putting together this technology toolbox, I’m almost jealous. Great information, and awesome effort on the screencast you created to show an example. After reading and watching I know more about GPS and geocaching than I ever thought I would! Truly awesome toolbox!

Just curious: What is the purpose of geocaching? Why are people so driven to play this high tech game of hide and seek? Any crazy stories from the internet posts or crazy items in the cache???

Randall’s Lesson Plan 4 Comment
I think the topic is a difficult one to cover with students, especially teenagers, and I think you did a great job catching the students’ attention in the beginning with the video and using scenario to help students learn. I think students are easily embarrassed and uncomfortable talking about feelings and anger in a group setting, and the scenarios give them the opportunity to act out something that’s not explicitly them, while still applying principles they may use within themselves. It serves as a protection for those students who are uncomfortable talking about it in the class setting. Awesome lesson plan!

A few suggestions:
• Consider including a class or grade to be targeted in the lesson plan. I gathered teens from the background information, but I’m curious as to whether it is high school or middle school or any grade 7 and up, etc.
• Depending on the size of the class, closeness of the class, time of year, etc. that this lesson plan is presented, you may want to incorporate an ice breaker to ease group discussion. In my experience, getting kids to just talk and discuss after a video can be challenging.
• Perhaps provide a private outlet for responding for those students who are uncomfortable sharing their feelings in class discussion. Maybe include a part where each student writes down how they feel before the group discusses it. Or break students into smaller groups for discussion so they only have to share with a few rather than many in the large classroom. Then the group can have a spokesperson that speaks for everyone collectively and the shy student feels more protected.
• Near the end of the lesson and in the evaluations, consider encouraging the students to make a decision for themselves about what they may have handled inappropriately when they are angry and how they can change that to a more effective reaction. Challenge them to incorporate that decision into their life.

Roddran’s Tech Toolbox 4 Comment
Awesome toolbox! Having used the clickers in a large, undergraduate, science lecture setting as a student, I was excited to learn more about them from an educator’s perspective, and your toolbox did just that.
I think it is a great tool for the setting in which I was exposed to it, a physics lecture with at least 150 students, for keeping students active in the class and helping both the professor and the student assess their level of understanding. It is an excellent tool for students who are afraid to answer in class in fear of getting the answer wrong as well! For those students, I think they will benefit much more from privately assessing their knowledge than if they feel embarrassed answering in class. I think it also has potential in a lesson plan like Randall’s where the students need to express their feelings about anger. The shy, introverted students in that class may benefit from being able to pick a response from a list privately rather than feeling as though they need to orally join the group discussion.

Randall’s Lesson Plan 5 Comment
LESSON FIVE review

Randall’s Tech Toolbox 5 Comment
Tech toolbox 5 review